Staying Cool, Calm, and Connected During COVID-19
Mehmet Bakir was alone and thousands of miles from loved ones…“The pandemic was a pretty tough time for me especially because I was thousands of miles away from my family and loved ones and living by myself did not make things any easier, but at least I was able to connect with my loved ones on social media,” said Mehmet Bakir. There are lots of real-life examples as Mehmet’s and social media helped most of us connect with our families and communities during that time.
The quarantine pushed people into exploring different ways to survive between four walls and to entertain themselves through the chaos. Many found solace between the various apps on their phone. The reason for it being that people looked for any way to continue the connection between their loved ones without being able to see them like they used to. These apps helped keep up with each other through sending videos, posting photos, and just keeping updated on everything going on around them. People felt the strain of not being able to see their loved ones in person, communities in Van Nuys, Northridge, and Hollywood noticed how much social media made an impact in keeping the communication alive between them.
The Van Nuys area is heavily populated by Latino families that hold their connection to each other very strongly and carry many family members in a household which can get overwhelming at times. Now, this only intensified when the shutdown kept all members in a house at all times of the day. Many struggled and had to find new ways to keep entertained and have an outlet of frustrations that would arise in a packed home.
One of these people was, Zayra Bolanos, who was stuck in quarantine with a larger than usual family. Some of her extended family members were visiting before the shutdown and she found it difficult to find a way to entertain herself through the chaos of the pandemic and in her own home. She missed her friends and that sort of free expression that could only be done with them. Though soon enough discovered some apps that could be used as an outlet to keep connected with them and voice her frustrations out.
“I think tweeting is like a virtual diary,” she claimed, “When I had a bad day, I would tweet about it. Then one of my friends would be like, ‘Oh, I hope you’re doing okay’ or ‘I hope things get better’ or we’ll have conversations or share memes or anything that was humorous and would cheer us up, we’d do that.”
Another resident in the Van Nuys area, Abigail Chavez, didn’t see the importance of social media apps before the pandemic. She recalls that she would check out Instagram or Twitter from time to time, but with quarantine she desperately wanted to find some sort of entertainment during a very stressful time just to distract herself.
“I heard of TikTok before the pandemic and didn’t put much thought into it, but the deeper into the pandemic we got is when I said, ‘Okay! I’ll try it,’ because I needed something before I lost my mind. I needed something new and yeah, it was dumb, but it was something to get my mind off of the virus and just laugh a little,” she explained, “It was also something to share with my friends and keep up that conenction in a fun way.”
Various apps such as TikTok and Twitter grew in popularity and interaction because of the shutdown. Such as in the article from Los Angeles Times, that described many apps boosted in ratings because many were stuck at home and searching for something to distract them. People were searching for any outlet to entertain and let go of the overwhelming time of the virus being at large. This gave people a little peace and time to laugh while keeping up connection by sending each other tweets or memes.
Hollywood is a diverse place where the white and Hispanic population are higher in numbers. However, the number of foreign people who live in Hollywood cannot be avoided, which is 36%, according to data from censusreporter.org. More data shows that 57% of the population who lives in Hollywood is non-family. In other words, they live alone, or they live with someone.
Ali Mazicioglu was one of those people who was away from his family. When the pandemic occurred, Ali was living with his girlfriend and not able to go back to Istanbul due to travel restrictions. Although he wasn’t alone during the lockdown, worrying about his family members and travel restrictions did not make things easier for him. Ali says that Instagram and WhatsApp were the most useful apps that distracted him during the pandemic. For Instagram, seeing what people were up to made him feel better and, in a way, it was an escape from the pandemic for him. However, WhatsApp was the main app that he used. He was thousands of miles away from his loved ones and through the app he managed to stay connected with his family by video chatting, sending videos and pictures.
“Worrying about my family was the first part. Being able to see them and talking to them took away my stress and helped me through the pandemic.”
Alexis Rios is another Hollywood resident who decided to make the move of leaving her hometown in the bay area to start a life on her own pre-pandemic.
“The pandemic definitely pushed me to be more independent than I expected at this time of my life. It was really hard to not physically be there with my family because we all live in different cities with different mandates and curfews, especially in the beginning we were all so paranoid during quarantine to even go out. The only real way I had the chance to see my sisters or anyone was through Facetime.”
Alexis mentions how she was never a fan of Facetime in the past or any video chat, but the iPhone feature allowed her to fulfill that social connection she desired.
Even those living in the United States experienced separation. A CSUN student, Jason Lane, mentions his struggle of being a college student living near campus and away from his family. The Northridge age range population of residents stands at 66% of the population being between the ages of 18–64, with 19% being specifically between the ages of 20–29, according to the census reporter. Northridge is home to many young college students who have to either live in CSUN housing or live in an apartment on their own, making it difficult to visit family.
“I live off campus as most of my other friends do as well, so we sort of stayed connected on what was happening around us by sending each other news from Twitter that we would see every now and then. As for my family, I personally didn’t want to risk anything since my mother is older now, so I would Facetime her to check up on how she was doing and make sure she had access to all the groceries she needed.”
Although from different areas, quarantine and the pandemic affected the connections between people very similarly. People learned to adapt to the latest apps on their phone in order to keep that connection strong during a time when the world was feeling so weak.
